Just when it looked like the DeKalb County School Board had its budget problems figured out – now it looks like they don’t.

The board Monday voted to reject a plan that would eliminate 250 teacher positions. But now the board has to find $13 million more in cuts before school starts in three weeks.

By law, school districts must have a balanced budget when class starts.

The board voted 5-2 against the layoffs. They have directed the administration to find cuts elsewhere. But the district has already slashed $60 million from last year’s budget in personnel and programs.

"What some of us are doing ... is trying to tell the superintendent she's got to come up with a different plan, one that does not include RIFs (reduction in force)," Board Chairman Dr. Eugene Walker said.

Walker said the request for a reduction in force came as a surprise to him since they had already approved the budget.

DeKalb School Superintendent Dr. Cheryl Atkinson says there were not nearly as many teacher retirements or resignations this year as she anticipated. Atkinson wanted the reduction in force to meet their board-approved budget goals. The cuts include 120 paraprofessionals.

Teachers had been leaving DeKalb by the rate of 20 per week, but that still is not enough to make up the deficit.

Only Tom Bowen and Jay Cunningham voted for the layoffs, with Pam Speaks and Paul Womack absent.

"When we talk about making kids a priority, I don't see us doing that," said Cunningham.

Board member Don McChesney's discussed cutting pay by 10 percent for all nonteaching personnel. Nancy Jester said the school system needed to spend less on legal fees.

But despite the discussion, no board member has put any formal option up for a vote.

School board candidate Marshall Orson believes the board members that are up for re-election July 31 are worried about getting voted out if they cut teachers and paraprofessionals.

"Lots of throwing out ideas for political pandering," Orson said. "The consequence is we are left in this hole with no clear direction for how we're going to dig out of it."

David Schutten, president of the Organization of DeKalb Educators, says avoiding cutting teachers is just delaying the inevitable.

"The school board is in a financial crisis," said Schutten. "Just delaying the decision is not going to make it better. It's going to make it more difficult to make a decision another month from now."